RE: TRUTH IS A RARE COMMODITY DESPITE THE FREEDOM ENJOYED BY PRINT AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA

I agree with you on principle, but this is very idealistic. It shouldn't be -- after all, kids are supposed to be taught to distinguish between what is truth and what is not. If you wish to dive deeper into this, I recommend reading The Propaganda Model, authored by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman.

You mentioned that the threat to print and mainstream media is what is causing them to sensationalize headlines. I think that's more of a symptom -- the Internet changed the game for just about everything in the same way that blockchain is now starting to change the way we think of currency. Sensationalism in media is the desperate attempt to hang on to some sense of significance in an increasingly digital world.

Data journalism is also an emerging field, and it will be interesting to see whether these data journalists ultimately take up the mantle of "mainstream". A lot of newsrooms hire data scientists to organize and sift through data, but few actually employ a journalist who has this skillset. I'd like to see a day where every news report can be vetted with a critical eye on the data that produced the news item.